Some embodiments relate generally to absorbent medical products and more particularly to absorbent medical towels for use in healthcare.
Absorbents medical products are prevalent in many aspects of healthcare for use in medical procedures to wound dressings to general cleaning. Medical towels, for example, are used to soak up and absorb bodily fluids such as blood or other exudates resulting from wounds or surgically created openings within the body.
Originally these towels were made of woven cotton and bleached, generally resulting in a bright white towel. The bright white color however produces glare, particularly from operating room lighting causing poor and distracting visual conditions during procedures. The glare is problematic as it results in visual discomfort, and leads to fatigue of operating room staff during surgical procedures. In some cases, it has been observed that the greatest discomfort glare and brightness was at 480 nm and 650 nm. One solution has been to add dye coloring to the absorbent material in an attempt to reduce the glare. However this results in additional steps to manufacture the product and further reduces the absorbency of the towel.
In many instances, the dyeing portion of the process is subcontracted to an outside dye-house, which process medical towels under the same production line as other non-medical products i.e. garment, fabric etc. Fabric is handled in an open production line separated into steps including degreasing, dyeing, bleaching and washing etc. Additionally, bleaching further increases linting due to the mechanical breakdown from the bleaching process, particularly with chlorine based bleaches.
This open production line separated into steps involves in extensive handling and chemical treatment on fabric in a non-controlled environment, which reduces the hygiene level and absorbency of the fabric, as well as increasing the lint. Lint is a well known cause of infection and if introduced into a body cavity, it can have serious life threatening implications. All surgical products introduced to the sterile field or close to the surgical site are generally required to have no or low linting characteristics.
The 2009 new prospective payment plan from CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) are requiring hospitals to be financially accountable for Surgical Site Infections (SSI). Therefore an increased awareness that “causes of surgical site infections” can be prevented is heightened more then ever before. In the United States it's reported that between 500,000 and 750,000 SSIs occur annually and the median costs of a surgical site infection is approx. $62,908 per patient according to Engemann J J, Carmeli Y, Cosgrove S E, et al. http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/articles/reducing-surgical-infections.html The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has revised their guidelines for prevention of SSI for facilities to implement these guidelines (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no2/nichols.htm) and to reduce lint in accordance with these guidelines.
In order to reach the surgical standard, the fabric has to be reprocessed including washing and drying afterwards in a controlled environment.
Thus, there is a need for an eco-friendly, reduced glare, low lint, dye-free, absorbable towel for medical use.